Phil Yelland takes a closer look at how Crawley Town have done on previous visits to Barrow ahead of this weekend's League Two meeting at The Dunes Hotel Stadium.
Saturday’s meeting with Crawley Town will be our fourth meeting on home soil and we will be looking to extend our unbeaten record against them here.
The first meeting took place back in April 2009 as we battled to ensure survival in Blue Square Premier having won promotion the previous May. Things did not look good at half time as we trailed 2-0. Immediately after the interval, half time substitute Nick Rogan pulled a goal back and then Steve McNulty hammered home the equaliser from the penalty spot only for Town to re-take the lead. In the dying seconds, it was Nick Rogan who popped up to equalise in a scramble to secure a point.
12 months later, Town visited on a Thursday night as we wound towards the end of the season. We still had a trip to Wembley in the FA Trophy Final to look forward to, but Crawley had just missed out on the play-offs and it’s fair to say their then boss Steve Evans was not happy about the long midweek trip. Barrow won 4-1; Nick Chadwick, Simon Wiles and Jason Walker scored, supplemented by an own goal from Town’s Ben Smith.
The following season, Town were to be crowned as Blue Square Premier champions and visited Barrow in early October. The game came a year to the day after Barrow had won at Crawley thanks to a Jason Walker penalty and he was again on target from the penalty spot to claim a point for Barrow on the hour after Matt Tubbs had scored for Town just before half time.
Last season we played out a five-goal thriller. Tom Davies gave us the lead with his first and only goal for the Club, only for the Sussex side to equalise. Scott Quigley put us back in front from the penalty spot, but Town again drew level. They looked as if they were going home with a point until deep into injury time when Quigley touched home a corner from close range to secure the points.
Let’s hope we can keep our run going on Saturday.